The software used to access the BBC homepage: Browser share - part 5

Internet Explorer Requests To The BBC Homepage

As with the Windows Operating System, Microsoft have done an excellent job of migrating all their users onto the latest version of the software. Over 90% of requests for the BBC homepage from an Internet Explorer browser came from the most recent stable release - Internet Explorer 6. Versions 5 and 5.5 accounted for around 8% of Explorer requests, with version 5 retaining more popularity than version 5.5. The remaining fractions of the market share are split between older versions, even going back as far as Internet Explorer 2.

Browser Share of Requests to the BBC Homepage

Internet Explorer 6

91.1%

Internet Explorer 5

4.42%

Internet Explorer 5.5

3.37%

Internet Explorer 4

1.01%

Internet Explorer 7 Beta

0.05%

Internet Explorer 3

0.01%

Internet Explorer 2

0.0005%

Browsers Visiting The BBC Homepage From Mac Users

I also looked at the browser share specifically within the Mac market:

Browser share of requests to the BBC homepage from Mac Users

Safari

59%

Internet Explorer

30%

Firefox

8%

Netscape

1.5%

Mozilla

0.9%

Camino

0.6%

Safari's lead is no surprise, but I wasn't expecting Internet Explorer to have so big a penetration in the Mac market. We have encountered a lot of issues in trying to code pages to work in IE5 on a Mac with our existing client-side code framework - on some of our newer pages we hide the stylesheet from it to avoid publishing a complete mess. I was hoping therefore to see that it had a minimal share...oh well.

I’m the founder of Emblem, a digital consultancy offering user experience design, information architecture and training services. I’ve spent over a decade building products for brands like the Guardian, Sony, Vodafone and the BBC, and now work with clients in the publishing, media, arts, heritage and culture sectors. To find out about working with us, please drop us an email.